The Deep End
by DawnTwilight
Summary: He was tired and hot and sweaty...


Title: The Deep End

Author: (Dawn) Twilight

Notes: Summer of Sam Love 2012. Since I have felt like writing again, I've decided to *try* to post a new short story a day for the SoSL 2012.

Summary: He was tired and hot and sweaty…

Feedback: Always welcome.

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Sam walked down the graveled path, fake palm trees and cheap plastic flowers lined the way and he shifted his laptop case, digging in his pocket to find the key to their latest accommodations.

They had been at the library, doing research on some ithing/i that liked to snatch little girls, but after last night...

His brother had told him, in the months that they had been back together, that they couldn't save them all and Sam knew that...he did...but she was just a little girl.

So after some fruitless hours, Sam had had enough and begged off, walking the few blocks to the place they had checked into this morning.

He tossed his bag on the bed, not even noticing the pink flamingo duvet or the sunny beach mural that covered the far wall.

He was tired and hot and sweaty…

The window unit pumped cool air out in fits and spurts, but it was better then being in the oppressing heat, so he settled back onto the bed, kicking off his shoes, waiting for Dean to meet up with him.

The place had an actual useable pool and as Sam closed his eyes, he could hear kids yelling and splashing, jumping off the edge, doing cannon balls and belly flops and before long, Sam slowly drifted to sleep, his mind wandering back to a time before he knew about what was really out there, back to a time when his dad would let them just be kids…

_"Dean! Dean, hurry on, will ya. Dad said we only had an hour."_

_"Hold you're horses, Sammy," his brother came from the bathroom, dressed in an old pair of cut off jeans and a tee shirt. He had two of the motel towels draped over a shoulder and a tube of sun block in his hand. "Come here and put this stuff on…"_

_Sam jumped the space between the two beds and kept right on bouncing, up and down, up and down. "Come on, Dean…I wanna go…daddy said only an hour…"_

_"Then get over here," Dean reached out a hand for him, nearly grabbing him by his thrift store swimming trunks, but Sam bounced away, back over to the other bed. "Sam, get over here or I'm not gonna take you …"_

_He jumped back, plopping down so Dean could slather him with the sticky stuff and then they were out the door. "Hurry, hurry," and Sam ran ahead and through the gate, running to the edge of the pool, but stopped short and looked back for Dean._

_"Go on, Sam…jump in."_

_Instead of jumping, he took a step back, watching the water ripple and swirl, the pump sucking water into slotted holes in the side of the pool and Sam was worried it might suck him away too._

_"What's the matter, bud?' Dean dropped the towels and bag on a deck chair and came up behind him, putting his hand on Sam's shoulder and he was suddenly afraid that his brother was going to push him, like that one time his daddy did, so he turned and wrapped his arms around Dean's middle, hanging on as tight as he could. "Hey, hey…ease up there, Sammy. Come on," and Dean extracted himself from Sam's grip and jumped into the shallow end feet first._

_The water was barely up to Dean's waist and Sam knew he was a little taller than that, so he sat down on the edge, shivering at the cool water caressing his legs._

_The sun was hot on his bare back, but Dean didn't make a move to come closer, so Sam slid his butt off the edge and held on as he turned and twisted, lowering himself into the water, yet still holding on to the side of the pool._

_"There you go, Sammy…now let go of the edge…walk over here to me."_

_He tiptoed across the bottom of the pool, the cement surface rough on is little feet, but he met Dean in the middle, finally figuring out that as long as he stayed on the right side of the rope, he could walk all the way across and the water wouldn't go above his chin._

_"You okay now, Sammy…I'm gonna just be over there," and Dean climbed out, drying and sitting on one of the towels and pulling his newest comic from the plastic bag he had brought with him along with a blow up ball._

_Sam caught the toy Dean tossed at him and played with it by pushing it under the water and sitting on it._

_A few other kids came running through the gate and jumped in, splashing each other and Sam stepped back, closer to the side wall where Dean sat reading the latest adventures of Batman._

_But after a few minutes, one of the little boys asked if Sam wanted to play._

_He looked to his brother, who nodded without even looking up from his comic, and soon they were all playing and splashing and screaming._

Sam sighed and rolled over, listening to the kids play and holler, hearing the water splashing and he sighed, the memory nice, but the screaming changed. Instead of playful shouts, kids were crying for help and Sam wondered if maybe he was still dreaming.

He jolted up when he realized the shouts were real, flying to the door and out to the patio in front of his room. He jumped the gate that circled the pool and saw a few kids pointing at something in the water.

There were no adults with the little group and Sam thought that maybe the oldest kid was ten tops.

The shape that he saw from a distance morphed into a little girl in a pink bathing suit and she wasn't moving.

Sam jumped into the deep end of the pool, the water was nearly over his head and he had to dive down to reach her, but he got her up and into his arms, pushing her little head above the surface of the water, and as he towed her to the edge of the pool, hands reached down for her.

He lifted her up into the waiting arms, trying to support her head and the people who had gathered around laid her out at the poolside.

A man leaned over her, putting his ear to her chest, listening then tilting her head, covering her little mouth with his and breathed for her.

Sam pulled himself up and over the edge, were he saw a woman clutching on to another guy, crying against the man's chest and sirens sounded in the distance, growing louder and louder and just as they pulled up the little girl spit up a mouthful of water and started choking.

The mother ran forward, gathering her daughter into a hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she cried into the little girl's wet hair.

While all eyes were on the mother and child, Sam slipped away, back to his room, leaving wet footprints and a trail of water in his wake.

The room door was open a crack and when he stepped in the air was down right cold on his wet skin.

He couldn't help the shivers that wracked his body and he couldn't explain the wetness on his face either, but he stiffened when he heard the door closing behind him.

"Hey, Sammy…" and he could tell Dean was trying to figure out what had happened, figure out what to say. Sam hadn't heard the ambulance leave so Dean had to have seen it. "If you wanted to go swimming, we could have hit the thrift store, you didn't have to jump in with your jeans…come on Aquaman," Dean moved farther into the room, "get dried off. I'm taking you out for a beer."

He nodded, wiping at his face, picking up his duffle and heading to the bathroom to peel off his wet clothes and change, because even though he couldn't save them all...sometimes, by diving into the deep end, he could save some and that had to be good enough.

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End file.
